Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation
About
My classes offer a technical foundation for all dance, with plies, jumps, exuberant runs, skips and leaps. Spirited dancers learn to move through space with joy and abandon. They enjoy social interaction and how to express themselves in dance.
The classes begin with a series of Duncan movements that expand upward and outward from the chest to flow through the entire body. Imagine the beauty of children moving with freedom and grace. Because Duncan dance emphasizes continuous movement, the awkward, straining and injury-prone rigidity found in other forms of training is non-existent.
In a Duncan class for children the focus is on the artful play of dance. Within the Duncan aesthetic, children breathe through floor exercises and a sampling of the basic skips, runs, leaps and tosses all to the great classical music composers. The children improvise on given themes helping them to expand their movement vocabulary with a variety of dramatic expressions. The beauty, grace and athleticism of the Duncan technique builds strength, musicality and freedom of movement.
What I love most about teaching Duncan class is that there are many approaches to the technique. Here are a few of my approaches:
1. Duncan Dance is unique.
With the impulse to move from the torso, in the region of the heart and the breath, Duncan Dance is a unique technique where the dancer is fully engaged.
2. The Storytelling and Games.
What motivates a dancer to move? Stories, games and dramatic interplay create worlds that motivate young dancers naturally.
3. I always approach teaching Duncan believing that everyone can have a fulfilling dance experience.
It is a technique that beautifully combines body and soul, which to me is the essence of all dancing.
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Frequently asked questions
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
Lori Belilove, Artistic Director, is a third generation Duncan Dancer who trained and danced with first and second generation Duncan Dancers Irma and Anna Duncan, who trained and performed directly with Isadora. This direct lineage and prestigious performing background has won Belilove the reputation as a premiere interpreter and ambassador of the dance of Isadora Duncan. Ms. Belilove has often been the subject of film, and photography as well as interviews for TV, radio and published articles as she is widely considered an important source for the documentation and interpretation of the Duncan technique and repertory.
Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company is the resident performing troupe of the Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation, which consists of a spirited ensemble of five to nine dancers who have achieved a purity of style hailed by Anna Kisselgoff, of The New York Times and other internationally renowned critics.
Ms. Belilove and her Company have toured extensively both nationally and internationally. She has conducted residencies in such prestigious institutions as The Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory, Oberlin College, Northwestern University, Kent State University, Ohio State University, New York University and University of California at Berkeley, among others. She received her B.A. degree from Mills College in dance, religion, and classical studies, and is in her 15th year on the faculty of The Dalcroze Institute at The Juilliard School.